Can a search fund use an SBA loan?

A searcher who has already chosen a company may be the borrower a lender underwrites for an SBA loan. Whether that loan is available is the lender's decision under the SOP, not Siddwell's. Siddwell does not lend, and it does not finance the search before a company is chosen.

Entrepreneurship through acquisition means buying a company in order to run it. A search fund is one way that search is paid for. The search, before a company is under letter, is not a financing mandate at this firm. Capital advisory starts when there is a company and a use of proceeds. If you are searching and you want to be called when a company is being sold, that is the network, not a loan.

Once a company is chosen, the acquisition can be financed the way other acquisitions are financed. The SBA says 7(a) proceeds can be used for a complete or partial change of ownership, up to the $5 million maximum it states, and that you apply with a lender. Some search acquisitions fit 7(a). Some fit a bank or private credit and not the SBA. Some need both an equity check from the search fund's investors and debt beside it. The SOP, including Appendix 15 for the change-of-ownership loans the 2026 notice covers, is what the lender uses. This site does not announce that search funds are eligible or ineligible as a class.

A search fund is one buyer in a larger market. Selling only to search funds is not the mandate. They can be in the process with private equity, strategics, family offices, and independent sponsors. If you are the searcher and the company is already chosen, the work left on Siddwell's side is the financing competition, not a loan from Siddwell.

Stanford describes a search fund as investors backing an entrepreneur who will find, buy, and run a company. That description is about the search, not about an SBA eligibility class. Siddwell's line is the same one it uses for every searcher: the search itself is not a financing mandate. Once a company is chosen, a lender may consider 7(a) for a complete or partial change of ownership, up to the $5 million maximum the SBA states, or may prefer a bank or private credit. The SOP decides the SBA path. This site does not announce that search funds as a group are eligible or ineligible. If you own the company, the searcher is one buyer to include, not the only name to call.

Siddwell is an AI-native investment bank for privately held US companies with $1M to $100M in revenue, doing sell-side M&A and capital advisory.

Siddwell can run a sale in which a search fund is one buyer, or advise on financing after a company is chosen. It does not fund the search, and it does not make the SBA loan.